Figbuck

Hey Ritchie, I got your shaft kits right here!!!! hahaha Good luck finding these somewhere in the world.

I lost my stock oil filler cap like that, and in all these years never found another one at the junk yards. A word or advice: Grease your three U-Joints on the propeller shaft. The front one sometimes gets "oiled" by the transmission, but grease it too. Grease all the upper and lower control control arm bushings, king pins and inner upper shaft too. A lot of times some of the Zirk fittings were capped from the factory. Can't remember why, but it is explained in Coling Messer's book; How To Keep Your Nissan Datsun Alive. There was a Zirk missing from steering components too. Having just spent a couple grand on king pins, all the bushings and steering replaced, wheels aligned... sorting out where all the grease fittings are is worth doing. Same with trans and read end oil do it now. Also check your steering box. Mine has always leaked and finally wore it out. Everything else got replaced. I'm going to get another steering column and box, send it off to be rebuilt, then replace mine. What a lot of work. But many years ago, I really didn't keep up on my maintenance, stuff is finally used up. Something that I wonder about now, is could I have figured out how to loose the kingpin setup... and end up with coil-overs with Hitachi Calipers. I love my Hitachi front discs that BlueHands did for me on 720 hubs. Good luck, your truck is a cream puff... Oh yeah, if this thing is going to sit in the rain at all, make sure you pull the windshield wipers... good time to grease each wiper stalk/bushing and make sure the neoprene booties are keeping water out. Take the front cowl off with 4 screws on the firewall. Then you can reach into the plenum and clean it out. There are drain scupper on each side. Pop the four little clips off the face off you heater, so you can get at the heater core and fan. It could be clean, could be a nightmare. Somewhere I did a How-To for making screens on the under side of the cowling, to keep leaves and crap out. Only took me 40 years to figure that out. Typically there is a pin hole leak on each side of the plenum where the firewall, inner fender and cab come together. The seams have goop from the factory, but not into this corner. I couldn't figure out how water was getting into the cab... only when I hit big puddles or splashed right. Two cents worth of RTV fixed the leak!!! I had to scarf the seam sealer off from inside the cab to see the cab was starting to rust behind it! I decided that it was too much trouble to take the cowl a wipers off to keep the plenum clean. I took two big rubber grommets, the size of the drain holes in the floor of the cab. Then drilled holes in the corners of the firewall, just next to the hood hinge, with a hole saw. I could get wire brushes and scrapers into the bottom of the plenum by the scupper drains. The seam at the edge of the scupper and cab was covered with crap. I realized that water was running back inside the cab right there. I bent the metal down into the fender well like a spout. I cleaned and painted it, then sprayed that plastic Rustoleum goop that foams and penetrates then cures. It sealed up all the seams. I could see it from the cab side under the dash. Covered the holes with Noeprene plugs, looks like they are supposed to be there. Easy now to stick an air or garden hose in the plenum to keep it clean. My truck lives outside in the rain and around trees, I'm OCD about this. Good luck... I hope you realize how much tedious nasty work you are spared with a cream puff truck like this. haha

It took me six months to gather up all the parts to rebuild the front suspension & steering on my '73 620. I just took my truck to the front end shop to have a new carrier bearing and propeller shaft U-joints. My mechanic gave me the bad news. My steering box needs to be rebuilt. Yeah, after nearly 50 years of beating the shit outta my truck... not surprising. Check out my thread here; So for a couple grand I should have figured out a way to have coil overs and rack and pinion steering...

Bump... did this electric 620 thing ever get done? Oics or it never happened...

Here is how I deal with these factory bent coolant hoses. I get high quality Gates hoses by the foot. I went to the hardware store plumbing section for brass PEX water supply fittings. For that little by-pass hose I use a short piece of 1/2" tubing and 3/8" hose with a 90 degree Ell reducer fitting... half to three-eights... male with barbed ends. They are four bucks, plus four high quality hose clamps. Same with heater hoses only 5/8" Ell 90 with male barbs. Pretty easy and bullet-proof with Gates hoses.

Aww too bad. My dash light are already too dim. You think if I hooked up this switch it would make them brighter again? haha

I pulled this out of a '76 620 ten years ago. I thought it was a variable speed wiper switch. Is that what this is?

I had my temp gauge stop working. Installed a new temp sender, a lot of work, what a corroded mess. Gauge still dead. Then I check the obvious stuff I should have checked first place. Is the fuse good? Yes. Is there continuity from the sender and engine wiring harness to the cab harness? I wiggled the big plugs behind the package tray... lo and behold... the temp gauge works again.

I used to be amazed how many times a fusible like would jump out of a 620 into the bottom of my tool box at the Pick 'n Pull. Haha But no more. I think there had only been one 620 in the PDX yards in the last three years. The Ratsun Bros picked that sucker clean in hours. While I was pulling service on something I stress the crip connectors to one of the plugs and it broke. My spares don't really look any better... Why can't I get a new fusible link and crimp nice connectors? Make a better part. Counter guy at Napa couldn't come up with any reference to fusible links and there wasn't anything generic in blister packs. Struck out at Baxter's/Auto Zone, O'Reily's because they all source the same catalogs. I can't believe it. I do a Google search; Repalcement for fusible link. Bang... NAPA online: Primary Wire Fusible Link 14 ga. Part #: BEL 784696 Line: Belden Primary Wire Fusible Link 16 ga. Part #: BEL 78469 Line: Belden But no amperage listed for the part, It's just a short piece of wire and an eyelet. They are five or six bucks. Here is from Advanced Auto Parts online: This part Dorman - Conduct-Tite 14 Gauge Fusible Link Wire Part No. 85620 is rated at 30 amps. This part Dorman - Conduct-Tite 16 Gauge GM Fusible Link Part # 85621 is rated for 20 amps. A little more money for Dorman brand, about six or seven bucks.

I replaced my King Pins, Control Arms and all the bushings... steering components... $900 worth of parts. After a lot of chasing my tail, I found out Nissan stocks cello bags of ten bushings for the torsion bars. The part number is for a Sentra or something that requires ten. I looked at my thread on all the work I did. I have a link for the sway bar bushings but not the torsion bar ones. I will have to look in my file for the receipts. This question has been ask before and they are available from the dealer. I did the work a couple years ago, I don't see anything disintegrating yet! See what I can come up with.

The best upgrades to my truck have been 4 wheel disc brakes, 15" Pathfinder wheels on 225s, 110 amp alt. on L20/weber... uh, no wait... The best upgrade in soon to be 49 years: Sony CD player with a USB port and and a remote for $99! Alpine speakers in the kick panels for $89!

L20, new 32/36 Dgev through California Datsun, Dead cold, I turn the ignition on. Step on the throttle once. Crank for a second, fires and idles at 1200. If the ambient temp is cold, I let it warm up for 20 or 30 seconds, drive off. Then engine warms pretty fast. It doesn't hesitate or stall at all. Dead cold on a warm day, It fires off and drives right off too. On cold starts, if I let it sit... it will high idle forever until I blip the throttle. On warm starts, I never touch the throttle, just stab the starter. If it doesn't catch the first time... it does the second time. I think because the fuel pump cycles. No extended cranking, or pumping the throttle at all. Idles nice at 800rpm all day long. I will have to look again, but I don't think there is any gap when the choke is closed.

In the end I got a generic oil pressure sender from O'Reily's. Napa and Baxter's were a no go. It has two tangs, to the gauge and to ground. I would not tap the block!!! What could go wrong? Ewwwww... the thought of metal shavings and crankcase make me cringe...

I left my alt. off the engine, less stuff to get in the way when you drop it back in. How do you know where the radiator outlet is? You got no radiator yet. How do you know the pully/fan is in relation to to it? I ran the bigger 65 amp alt. on my L16. It was a really tight fit. Barely daylight between the hose on top, and a half or five-eights of an inch, between the spinning fan/pulley, and the bend in the hose right where it connects to the radiator. I went through four belts to find the magic one that worked. It was Ratsun no doubt. I did what Hainz said when I put the L20 in. I used the 35amp stock alt off the L16 until I got it in and a few bugs worked out. Then I stuck the bigger 65amp back in, because I got a new aluminum and plastic radiator... and moved it over as far as I could to help the situation. It was ok, but I need more power for trailer lights, so... I found a place in Portland called Auto-Battery Electric. Ken, the guru at SE 15th X Hawthorne, built me a new 110 amp unit, using a small Delco housing, with the right pulley for $98. A new plug clip pigtail, was ten bucks. They mounting ears are so close to matching the 35amp POS I have been running on an L20. The modifications I made, were to add a washer to the front bolt to shim it. I had to make some small bushings for both of the bottom ears so I could use the existing L20 alt. bracket. I think I could have drilled and tapped the front bolt, and drilled the rear hole for larger bolts, but I wanted to make it run. I didn't have time and wasn't where my tools are. Then I replaced the idler arm with a $3.64 turnbuckle from ACE Hardware. I added a wing nut to lock one side of the threads. Simple to tweak the belt tension. Fuck me, how come I didn't ever do this before? I already removed the external voltage regulator a while ago, when I put in the 65 amp alt. It was not right for my application in a '73... no bump out for the radiator... so the pulley came too close to the bottom radiator hose. It was hard to get the right belt to fit a limited adjustment range. It was better than an 35amp, but the 110amp makes it like shit actually works. Can have the lights, wipers, heater and stereo on, all together... towing a trailer with lights... and the turn signals work! Wish I could tell you part or model numbers, It says Alt. on the receipt. But It is easy to do, can be done. I wish I would have done it 30 years ago. or 40... or 45...